Harry Potter and the Girl Next Door
by Masked Trombonist
Summary: At school, Harry had Hermione. Everyone knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Harry Potter in his baggy old clothes and broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang, except Hermione.
1. Starting out

Harry Potter and The Girl Next Door

Chapter One: Starting Out

At school, Harry had Hermione. Everyone knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Harry Potter in his baggy old clothes and broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang, except Hermione.

Hermione Granger, and her parents, had moved into number eight Privit drive five years ago. The kids at school disliked Hermione, because she did better than everyone else at school. Naturally Harry and Hermione, being the two least-liked kids at school clung together like Velcro. They told each other all their secrets, and did everything together.

When Hermione first moved to Privit drive, Harry confided in her why he got bad grades. Hermione had an idea for that.

"What if we talk to the teacher and explain the situation, and maybe she can send home a bad card and leave the official one good!"

"That's a fantastic idea, Hermione! We should do that!" and they did.

Hermione came to school one september day looking as though she had just won the lottery, ans Harry couldn't figure out why. At recess he decided to ask her about it.

"Hermione, why are you in such a good mood?" he asked.

"We're going to the same secondary school!" she blurted out before enveloping him in a hug, "I'm going to Hogwarts too." she whispered in his ear.

Harry was puzzled "What's 'Hogwarts'?"

"You don't know?" she thought he knew, "You're a wizard, and I'm a witch! We'll be going to school together for magic."

At first Harry was shocked and confused, but then the more he thought about it, the more sense it made! That's how he shrunk the ugly sweater, and grew his hair back, and how he appeared on the school kitchens.

"You should be getting you're letter in late July. The professor who came to tell me I was a witch, said, she would be back in July to take us shopping for school supplies, but she gave me a couple books to borrow in the meantime, so I could read up on wizarding culture. I'll let you read them too..." they spent the next few months reading and planning.

After the school year was out Harry made it a point to wake before the rest of the house, get his chores done, and check the mail before he made breakfast, he usually had another half an hour of chores after breakfast to finish, but he knew the rules: Finish chores promptly, then get out of sight, if all chores were done by dinnertime, he would be allowed to eat... something. If not then no supper and more chores the next day. The Dursley's didn't care where he went after he finished his chores, just that he was out of sight, so he went over to Hermione's everyday.

Dudley's birthday was tomorrow, and the family was faced with a delema. Mrs. Figg had broken her leg, and couldn't watch Harry.

"Boy, Where do you go after you finish you're chores everyday?" Mr. Dursley asked.

"Well, sir, I ususally go to Number eight, I have a friend who lives there, or I go to the liabrary." Harry responded hesitantly.

Vernon almost choked on his coffee, "Who would want to be friends with the freak?" he mumbled to himself, "Well can you make sure you have some place to go tomorrow, we will be gone all day and I don't want you in the house."

"Yes, sir, I will."

It wasn't much different than usual, except he got to leave right after breakfast, and spend the day with his best friend.

The day harry got his letter, he was careful to hide it from the Dursleys and was super fast at mowing the lawn that morning, so he could run the four houses to Hermione's.

"Harry!" Hermione called upon seing him running towards her, "Did you get it?"

"Yes, but I haven't had time to read it yet." they both ran in the house where Mrs. Granger was doing some paperwork on the dining room table.

They spread out and read the letter, and Hermione grabbed hers, they were quite excited. After a few minutes an owl flew through the kitchen window.

Mrs. Dan Granger, Miss Hermione Granger, and Mr. Harry Potter,

Professor McGonagal will be arriving at number eight Privet drive, at 1:00 pm. Mrs. Granger Please make sure you have some cash for supplies. Mr. Potter your Finances will be explained upon her arrival.

Filius Flitwick

It was now 12:45 and Emma Granger had the appropriate amount of cash in her purse.

The two kids were waiting anxiously for their professor to arrive.

There was a pop, like a car backfiring, in the back garden, and within moments, they were piled in a car on their way to London.

"Mr. Potter," the professor started from the front seat, "you have a decent trust fund, your parents set up to get you through school, in the case of their deaths. I have the key with me, and if you don't mind Mrs. and Miss Granger coming with, to see your vault, then I can explain to you all how the bank works."

"That's fine, professor. What subject do you teach?"

The professor couldn't help but smile at the boy's curiosity, "I teach, Transfigurtion, or the art of turning one thing to another."

"Oh that's cool! Like turn a pen into a pencil?"

Minerva Giggled, "Precicly, however, the magical world is a few years behind the muggles in some respects, and we don't use pencils or pens, we use quills and ink. However if you wanted to bring some pens, most professors wont have a problem with it, just not during class."

"Why not during class?" Hermione asked.

"Because it is important that you learn how to use a quill, and we can't enforce what utensil you use on your homework, so we require you to use quills in class."

Hermione nodded, "That makes sense."

"All right everyone, this is the address!" Emma said from the driver's seat.

The four of them stepped out of the car, "Miss Granger, would you please take your mother's hand? It will allow her to see the pub."

The Leaky Cauldron sat on the other side of the street and looked like a place no respectable person would step foot it, but they went anyway. As they crossed the street, Harry licked his hand and tried to hide his scar.

They managed to make it through the pub unnoticed, probably because everyone in there except the barkeep (Tom, the professor called him) was already at least tipsy if not drunk. They walked into a backroom. The room was small, maybe ten feet squared, there were bags of trash and empty bottles, reading 'Butterbeer,' scattered the floor except for a path to the opposite wall. The wall was made out of the kind of bricks you would see in a school house, and there was a small area where the faces of the bricks had been chipped away.

"This is the entrance to Diagon Alley, once you have your wand, you can enter on your own by tapping the bricks in the following order," and she began to tap the bricks around the hole with her wand.

The bricks began to move and form an archway. On the other side of the archway was a vast market street, and at the other end, was a towering building called Gringotts: Wizarding Bank. They headed straight for it.

There were many marble steps leading to a silver door. The professor opened the door to reveal som of the ugliest creatures any of the three had seen in their lives. There were hundreds of them; they had sharp teeth, long noses and claw-like fingernails. They were doing things you would expect of a banker, paperwork, weighing gems, stamping things, helping customers.

There were five or six lines of around fifteen people each, and the four of them got in one.

When it was their turn the professor addressed the thing she had called a goblin, "We need to change some money, and Harry Potter wishes to enter his vault."

after changing the 'muggle money' into galleons, sickles and knuts the goblin asked, "Do you have the key, ma'am?" Minerva handed over a small, ornate, gold key, "looks all right, Griphook, can you take these people to Harry Potter's trust vault?" it wasn't as much a question as an order, and another goblin came and led them through a door and into a cart. The cart took off at breakneck speeds speeding lower and lower into the ground.

The cart stopped suddenly in front of a vault that the goblin opened for Harry to collect more of the coins from. The vault had large piles of all the different coins. Harry grabbed three handfuls of the gold galleons, a few silver sickles and a handful of bronze knuts. And they returned to the surface.

"How about we get you're robes first, shall we?" the professor suggested. They headed to madam Malkons. They students were curious as to why they had to wear robes, which were very impractical. But they finished their fittings and left with three sets each and a winter cloak.

The bags already seamed too much for the childeren, so when Professor McGonagal asked if they would like to purchase trunks next they readily agreed. And headed off to Two Hags: Luggage and Bags.

When the quartet entered the store, Emma was impressed, "Are there any that are acceptable for muggles, some of these purses are cute!"

That was when one of the store owners greeted them, "All our bags come in a muggle acceptable option, just find one you like and I'll explain it, for you." then she addressed the childeren, "Two student trunks and school bags?" she asked politly.

"Yeah, what are our options?" asked Harry.

"Well without custom ordering a trunk you only can get 1 of our specialty options for a student trunk: There's the closet option, bookshelves, potions rack, bottomless, muggle insulated room, or clicking srinkable, we also offer permanent featherlight charms for 8 Sickles the trunk costs 3 galleons and if you add a single addition it will come out for a total of 7 galleons, but we can also get custom ordering done in 1 week, it charge for the order 3g for the trunk and 3g for each addition. Any trunks that have an addition come with the featherlight charm."

Harry's eyes were wide, "that's a lot of options... what do students normally get?"

"Many Muggle-born students will get the muggle insulated room, we have some students get the shrinkable, and the most popular is the bottomless trunk."

"Hermione what do you think?" Harry asked.

"I think I want the muggle insulated room option, so I can get a phone to call my parents, and maybe a computer to keep up on muggle studies. I'd Like to get a secondary school education too..."

"Can I see a Clicking shrinkable one please." harry asked the store keeper

"All our trunks are at least a little larger on the inside than the outside, and here is the clicking shrinkable. Next to it is the bookshelves option." she said leading them to two trunks by the wndow, "I can show you the muggle insulated one too. It has a clear top when someone is inside and it also cannot be moved once someone is inside. These modifications are to help teachers enforce rules about boys and girls.

Harry, Hermione, Emma, and Minerva discussed the options, and they decided to get two with muggle insulation as they couldn't both use the same trunk for it being in the dorms. They purchased the trunks and some plain school bags as well as a purse for Emma, and went on to the next shop.

The two kids decided they could share one owl as there were also school owls available if they needed it, they bought a snowy owl and Harry named her Hedwig.

They spent two hours in Fleurish and Blotts and got way more books than required for their year.

By the end of the day, they had all the supplies on their list and they bid the professor goodbye and drove home. Harry asked Emma if it would be OK if he left his trunk at their place, and she offered him a ride to kings cross. Harry did not intend to tell the Dursley's where he was going to school.

**A/N: Hello, this should be the longest author note of the story, don't worry mine are often less than a line or two. **

**My plan for this story is to go parallel to cannon as much as possible with a couple of changes at the beginning creating a ripple effect. For the purpose of this story muggle-born students receive a visit and acceptance letter on their eleventh birthdays, while half-blood and pure-blood students receive a letter at the end of July. I know that's a change, but I need to do it to make the beginning work how I want it to. I will be trying to stick to book cannon as much as possible, however as it takes 20 hours to watch all the movies and around a month or more to read all the books, I have watched the movies more and more recently, I will be reading along in the books as I write the story though to make sure I have everything as right as possible. I am sure there will be a point when I break entirely from cannon, but I haven't decided where yet.**

**Ron/Dumbledore: this story isn't a bashing story, but I will question some actions, and probably won't make them as important as in cannon. For example, Ron WILL be friendly and if harry is in Griffindor he will be a friend, but not his best friend.**

**Harry and Hermione relationship: I haven't decided what exactly I am going to do with their relationship, that is the pairing, but whether they get together 1st year, post Hogwarts or anywhere in between, I haven't decided; I'm Just going to let things unfold.**

**Most things are going to be on a wait and see basis, I have a VERY basic structure in my head, but it could change with a single sentence, so we'll see.**

**Updating: No promises, but I hope to update at least once a month and here's June**

**Disclaimers: I do not own Harry Potter or anything else in this story, I don't like posting disclaimers every chapter, they just take up space, so I will post them with every author's note, but otherwise this one covers the whole story as it is one piece of work.**


	2. The sorting

**A/N: To those of you who have commented that I need a beta: I agree! However, I already know, and unless you are volunteering for the post that particular criticism is no longer constructive. I OWN NOTHING!**

Harry Potter and the Girl Next Door

Chapter 2

The sorting Ceremony

The rest of the summer crept by. The two from Privet drive, anxiously awaited the first of September. They spent their time reading and talking all about the world they would soon enter. They talked about magic, and sports, and all sorts of things that would interest two new wizards.

Harry loved the idea of flying and swirling around on a broom. Hermione, however, was terrified.

"Hermione," Harry started one day when the subject came up, "I will read the Jane Austin books, if you would just give flying an honest chance."

Hermione smiled, she had been trying for months to get Harry to read 'Emma,' to no avail. Her smile faltered, '_Fly? But, it's so dangerous!'_ "Er. . . okay I guess I can give it a go." she said hesitantly.

Finally it was September first, and the two young wizards were saying goodbye to the Grangers just outside the platform. The train was scheduled to leave at eleven o'clock, but the children, in their excitement, had convinced the parents to leave early, and they were standing at the barrier at ten o'clock when they said their final goodbyes.

Harry stepped through the barrier first and was amazed that he felt nothing as he passed through seemingly solid brick. His first glimpse of the express was enough to make him stop just inside the barrier.

Hermione bumped into him as she came through, which knocked harry back into motion. He wheeled their carts over to the train and easily lifted their trunks into a compartment. Hermione followed him over to the compartment, boarded and took her seat.

They weren't alone for long until a round-faced boy asked to join them. He introduced himself as 'Neville' and he wanted to be in Gryffindor, but he thought, he would probably end up in Hufflepuff.

Before the train left the station they were joined by two girls named, 'Hannah' and 'Susan' as well as a couple of Indian twins named 'Parvati' and 'Padma' Patil.

About a half an hour after the train left the station, Parvati left the compartment in search of the loo. In her absence, a blonde boy entered the compartment along with two stupid-looking boys.

"I heard a rumor that Harry Potter was in this compartment, however, that rumor must be false, as I am sure that Harry Potter would not consort with blood traitors," He glared at Neville, "half-bloods," this time at Hannah, "and savages." Hermione was shocked when he glared at padma.

Harry stood, "What's your name?" Harry was a tad bit shorter than the blonde, but at this moment he looked at least a head taller.

The blonde boy looked at him appraisingly and spat, "What's yours?"

"Jerold Granger, now answer my question." Hermione was impressed, he didn't give away his name, that was good.

"It's Malfoy, you mudblood!" and he slammed the door on the way out.

Susan was confused, "Why did he call Padma a savage?"

Hermione sighed, "he made a huge error. In the early days of America they called the natives 'Indians' and also 'savages,' so he has probably just associated the two words together and, despite the fact that Padma is a true Indian, not a Native American, he is calling her a savage."

The rest of the ride went by smoothly and before long they were in the great hall waiting to be sorted.

Hanna and Susan were both sorted into Hufflepuff.

Hermione walked up to the stool. '_Interesting, too bad... if you were a pure blood, or even a half blood I would place you in Slytherin, that trick you pulled for harry's grades exemplifies the GOOD that a true Slytherin can do. However the scrutiny and hardship you'd be under makes it less than desirable.'_

'You can place me there I'll set them straight, I'll be okay.'

_'And that is exactly why I am placing you in-' _

_'_NO! Put me where you think I belong, in spite of this stupid discrimination.'

'_If you're sure...' _"SLYTHERIN!"

There was shock around the Hall when a muggleborn walked to the Slytherin table.

Neville joined the Gryffindor table a few moments later

The blonde boy 'Malfoy' from the train ended up in Slytherin. Then there were the Patil sisters Padma went to Ravenclaw and Parvatti went to Gryffindor.

When Harry Potter reached the hat there was no Hesitation. He joined his best friend.

Throughout the ensuing meal, the Slytherin duo were both ignored and thoroughly watched. They talked with each other avoiding their sorting.

"I bet Neville's happy! He made Gryffindor just like he wanted to!" Harry exclaimed.

"And the twins got split up, that will hurt, but it will be really good for them as well."

"Yeah, I wonder what classes we will have with them."

Hermione laughed, "We wont even get our schedules until the morning."

"No... but I still wonder, we need to talk after dinner."

Hermione looked sheepish, "Yes of course Harry."

They ate their meal under the scrutinizing eyes of their new housemates.

An older student rose at the end of the meal. "Hello Slytherin first years, Follow me."

She led them out of the great hall and down some stairs to an empty wall. She said the password, "Pride" and the wall opened like a door. They entered into a dimly lit room decked out in green. She adressed the gathered students. "Hello, and welcome students. My name is Gemma Farley. I know there are going to be issues with some of you," at this she glared at Hermione, who held her chin up and thrust forward. "but outside the common room, we need to look like a united house. If anybody is to do something against someone else outside this house and get _caught_, their punishment is to clean the common room thoroughly with a toothbrush. We have house pride before anything else. Never forget that. Now, better get some sleep, boys on the left, girls on the right."

Before they separated they hugged. "Hermione, meet me back here in ten minutes." she nodded into his shoulder and they went down to their dorms.

Harry was in a dorm he shared with Theodore Nott, and Blaize Zabini while Crabbe, Goyle and Malfoy were in the other first year dorm.

When Harry made it up the stairs, Hermione was already there, crying silenty in a big, soft chair by the fire.

"What's wrong, Hermione?" Harry tried to comfort her. She held up a photograph of her parents, the heads had been torn off.

"Parkenson did it." Hermione sobbed, "She said that if I am going to survive in Slytherin house, I have to denounce my parents."

"Oh Hermione, that can't be true, we'll just have to prove them wrong then. Why did the hat take so long with you?"

"It couldn't decide where to put me, he said that I belong here, but I would get ridiculed for being a muggleborn so much that he'd rather not, I told him I would be fine and he said my reaction is why I belong somewhere else, but I interrupted him and made him place me here. I told him 'place me where you think I belong, in spite of this stupid discrimination.' and he placed me here." she hugged harry.

"It's just you and me again we'll get through this." Harry told her

**A/N sorry guys about the wait. I REALLY did not want to see them in Slytherin, but I couldn't figure out which house to put them in. I didn't want them in ravenclaw, because I think they know that there is more to life than knowledge. I personally don't see courage as Hermione's distinctive feature. Hufflepuff would have been good, but I don't have a solid enough foundation in Hufflepuff to be able to write it well. So Slytherin it is.**


End file.
